Ben Solo and the Terrible Plague
by madame.alexandra
Summary: It's really important for Leia's sanity that her husband learn what the actual definition of a fever is. {H/L; TFA canon - kind of a joke}
_a/n: took a break from writing sad things to write something really stupid. and fluffy, i guess? not connected to any of my other stories, at all. TFA canon. let's say Ben is a month or so old. very very small._

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 _ **Ben Solo and the Terrible Plague**_

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It was with a sense of very calm irritation that Leia watched over her sleeping son as he lay in his crib.

When her aide had pulled her out of a meeting to tell her Ben was in the hospital, _panic_ had been the only word that could come close describing the feeling that had clutched at her so violently she lost her breath. Having never quite experienced what it was like to fear for the life of her child, she'd been utterly unprepared for how debilitating the feeling was.

Of course, that soul-consuming terror had quickly evaporated when, after she left the Senate in the middle of a very important trade negotiation, made her way to the medical center with extreme haste, and ran through the hallways of the pediatric wing, she'd found that the whole ordeal was actually nothing more than Han being an absolute idiot.

Not an _idiot_ in the sense that he was irresponsible, or incapable. Idiot in the sense that – well, the word _overdramatic_ came to mind.

Standing here now, watching a perfectly healthy, _perfectly_ unharmed baby sleep, she was still in quiet, chagrined disbelief that Han's first day alone with the baby had gone the way it had.

She heard the sound of a throat being cleared softly behind her, and turned slightly to look – he stood in the doorway, a sheepish expression on his face – she hadn't spoken with him since they'd arrived home. She turned back around, inclining her head silently to indicate he was welcome to come in.

He slowly strode up and came to a stop by her side, peering down at the baby alongside her. After a moment, he cleared his throat again.

"He looks a _little_ flushed," he ventured warily.

"Don't start with me," Leia retorted under her breath.

"Leia," Han whined back in a whisper. "I was just bein' cautious."

"Since when are you ever cautious?"

"I figured you'd want me to be cautious with our kid 'stead of waiting to see what happens!"

Leia shook her head, compressing her lips.

She was angry mostly because he'd scared the living daylights out of her – or rather, her aide had, by informing her that General Solo had called to say he was taking Ben to the hospital.

She shook her head.

"If I had known you were going to be such a wreck, I'd have put you in some classes first or something," she sniffed quietly.

"A _wreck_? Classes?!"

"You acted like this was an emergency – a hospital, Han? A _hospital_?"

Han thrust his hand out and Leia slapped it down. She put her hand over her lips and shushed him, and he gave her an outraged look – she was the one berating him! He glared at her, and then folded his arms, scowling stubbornly.

"I thought it was an emergency!" he hissed.

"He wasn't even sick."

"He could have been!"

"It was just one cough."

"How was I supposed to know he didn't have Rylothian Measles, or the Kath Flu?"

" _Because ninety-nine-point-one isn't a fever, Han,"_ she hissed, turning and rounding on him.

He backed up, holding his hands up – okay, so he'd panicked. A little. He might have gone a _little_ bit overboard – but – but –

"I don't know how it works when they get sick! I've never had a baby before."

She looked incredulous.

"Neither have I!" she pointed out. "But I know not to take a child to a hospital because his face is a _little_ red in the _middle of summer_!"

Han faltered, and folded his arms again, glaring down at her.

"I'd be in more trouble if he dropped dead on my watch, wouldn't I?" he retorted.

Leia slapped his shoulder.

"Bit your tongue," she hissed. "You know – you know, I thought I'd have to get on to you for letting him put wires in his mouth while you work on the _Falcon_ or – letting him roll off a table – I didn't think I'd have to chew you out for being _too protective_!"

"Yu think I'd let him eat electrical wires?" Han asked loudly, affronted.

Leia smacked a hand gently over his mouth and looked down at the baby, alarmed that Han had woken him up – this whole thing appeared to have started because Ben had been unhappy all day, and Han, increasingly worried about why he was crying so much, heard one little cough, interpreted a body temperature variation as a fever, and went into some sort of – unexpected, five-alarm parent mode.

She moved her hand from his mouth after a moment, and sighed, her shoulders falling.

"You have no idea how _scared_ I was thinking something was actually wrong with him," she said earnestly.

Han gave her an annoyed look.

"I thought something was wrong with him, too, Leia!"

She rolled her eyes.

"You have to use your common sense," she answered.

"I don't have any common sense!"

"I'm going to let that slide," Leia said, deadpan. She reached up to push her loose hair back. "You're lucky those nurses didn't laugh you out of the pediatric wing."

"No one is going to risk being the nurse who doesn't treat Princess Leia's baby, Sweetheart," he retorted dryly.

She sighed again – he was probably right; any other father they might have sent home while they snickered behind their hands at the lunacy of such fresh, panicky new fatherhood, but the father of Leia Organa's baby? They'd tripped over themselves just to confirm medically what they suspected – that Han Solo had a case of _very_ severe new father paranoia.

Leia put her hand over her mouth, turning back to look down at Ben. He still slept soundly, and she rested her hand on the edge of the crib, admiring him a moment. When she turned back to Han, some of her annoyance had ebbed. She lowered her hand.

"If anything ever happens to him, I will break into a thousand pieces," she said hoarsely, "I will break, and no one will ever put me back together, not this time – not even you."

He swallowed hard, nodding – he felt terrible for losing his head, if only because it had obviously frightened her so much, before she got to the hospital and a nurse pulled her aside to tell here that there was literally nothing at all wrong with her baby but there might be something _slightly_ wrong with her husband.

He reached out to touch her arm gently.

"I don't want anything to happen to him either," he said quietly.

Leia took a deep breath and nodded. She stepped forward and rose on her toes to kiss his cheek, squeezing his shoulder comfortingly. She hadn't expected to be as calm of a mother as she was, but then, she hadn't expected Han to be so good, either, especially considering neither of them had planned this.

Han slipped his arm around her and pulled her close to him, resting his chin on his head. He looked down, watching Ben sleep, and after a brief moment of being glad he was perfectly fine, went back to feeling fairly idiotic of having gone completely off the deep end – it was becoming public knowledge that Han Solo had taken his son to the emergency room for _literally nothing_.

"Leia?" he ventured finally.

"Hmm?"

"…don't tell Chewie about this."

Chewbacca would laugh him into the next dimension. He could hear the roar of laughter now, as the Wookiee mocked him, derided his intelligence, made fun of him for the rest of his life – he could _hear_ it now –

"Oh," Leia said lightly. "I am most definitely telling Chewie."

Han muttered under his breath, groaning quietly. She tilted her head back, smiling smugly.

"You don't want Chewie to know you're such an…attentive father?"

"He's gonna laugh at me," Han protested.

Leia laughed.

"Han, if you ever try to do anything dashing and arrogant again, I'm going to remind you of the time you took the baby to the hospital because he was a tiny bit _hot_."

Han hung his head, scowling, and Leia tilted his chin up, catching his eye fondly.

"I suppose I would rather yell at you for being overly cautious than for letting him eat electrical wires."

"I wouldn't – !"

"I know," she interrupted soothingly. "I know," she said again, sincerely.

She smiled at him again, softer this time – most of her irritation had come from fear, some of it was from realizing Han had been so quick to jump the gun, but all of it evaporated now, because it was all just because he cared, and that he couldn't be blamed for.

Han smiled back at her charmingly.

Next to them, Ben fussed, opening his eyes with an irritated shriek. Leia turned to him, sweeping him up into her arms immediately, her lips pursing affectionately.

"You're fine," she murmured to him softly. She shot Han a wicked glance. "Have you recovered from the _terrible_ plague you had, darling?" she asked the baby, blatantly teasing his father.

Han gave her a baleful look, turned, and sulked out of the nursery to brood. Leia wrinkled her nose and lifted Ben's face to hers affectionately, relieved to look into his completely healthy face and know that nothing was wrong with him at all, the panic had all been for naught.

"Come on," she whispered conspiratorially, "let's go – we'll pretend I hit your head on the doorframe and see if Daddy calls in the galactic military about it. Oh, what if you were a girl? I imagine he'd be even worse."

Ben looked back at her with wide, pretty eyes, and she grinned, snuggling him against her chest as she went after Han – for all the chaos he'd caused, and for all she said about him acting like a real basket case on his first day completely alone with the baby, it was endearing to know that underneath all the bravado, Han Solo was a man who could be utterly disarmed by a very small baby who happened to have his eyes.

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 _story# 304_  
 _-alexandra_


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